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Here at Android Police, us writers are encouraged not to use the word "finally" in titles, as it can manufacture unnecessary excitement for something that not a lot of people may care about. However, for something as miraculous as this, there really is no better word to use. Google has at long last begun testing speed controls in the YouTube Android app, something that people have been wanting for years. It's about time.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google has approached some publishers to participate in a new project allegedly called "Stamp," a portmanteau of "Stories" and their existing AMP service. The new "Stories" would be units of visually-oriented news, comprised of a series of slides including text, photos, and video. If that sounds a lot like Snapchat's Discover or Facebook's Instant Articles, you'd be right.

It's finally Friday, which means it's time for the final app sales post for the week. It's pretty short today, but there are a few goodies here — most notably, doubleTwist Pro. Keep in mind that all the times listed below are accurate at time and country of writing. Things might be different where you are.

Pixel fever is sweeping the internet, and there's no cure. We're all doomed to suffer until Google unveils these hotly anticipated devices, but there are some new details today courtesy of VentureBeat to tide you over. At the top of the list, there's a picture (above) of the smaller 2017 Pixel. It's a mix of old and new.

Android Messages v2.3 was introduced with Android O Developer Preview 3 back in June, and it brought a small yet powerful thing: a 'Mark as read' button in notifications. This was something that many people were glad to see, but it was only available in DP3. Now, Android Messages v2.3 has rolled out to all devices, meaning that all of you can now experience what a wonderful feature this is.

Around the world, a lot of people rely on their mobile devices as their only point of access to the internet and don't have a WiFi connection or router at home. For many of those people, using a Chromecast would have been impossible if it weren't for one small logical workaround: creating a hotspot with their phone that the Chromecast can connect to. Unfortunately, that workaround is no longer, uhm, working right now and it sounds like the latest Google Play Services is to blame.

Last month, we heard rumors that Google was planning to relax its ban on real-money gambling apps in the Play Store, but after reaching out to Google we didn't get a response either way. With an update to its developer policy page, Google has now confirmed that some of these apps are going to be allowed on the Play Store in the UK, Ireland, and France.

Welcome to the first Wednesday of August; I hope that the month is off to a good start for all of you. I'm here again with another list of apps that are either free or on sale, though it's slim pickings for good ones despite the large number available to choose from. Vertumus had some icon packs for free earlier, but that sale expired before I got around to writing this up. And the ten-cent app, as usual, excludes the U.S. (despite it being on its own sale here).

I'm sure there's a legit reason why Google has changed one of its developer policies on the Play Store, but I can't think of any right now. Back in mid-July, it announced in a newsletter to developers that the character limit for app titles has been raised from 30 characters to 50. The change, however, seems to have been in effect even before because Waze changed to a much longer name between June 13 and 14.